The two teams will compete in the World Series, starting Wednesday night, thus putting a perfect and painful finish on top of what has been one of the worst seasons in Mets history.

In the next few days, you will hear lots of people talk about theories and unwritten rules, all of which dictate who you, the Mets fan, should root for.

Some will say, ‘You root for your own league,’ while others will say, ‘You root for your rival.’ I don’t buy any of these ‘rules.’

To me, in the end, for Mets fans, the choice is personal, and basically comes down to your typical relationship with Yankee fans.

For instance, there are lots of Yankee fans who love to mock the Mets, they boast of their success and laugh at our failure – even though, typically, one has nothing to do with the other. And, while most all of the arrogant Phillies fans live 100 miles away, these cocky Yankees fans sit next to you on the subway, they’re in the next cubicle or live next-door, teasing and mocking all day, all night. In this case, I can totallyunderstand why a Mets fan will root for the Phillies, because, while Philadelphia’s success will be irritating, it can easily be ignored. The Yankees and their fans, however, are unavoidable.

For me, however, my wife is a Yankees fan, most of my friends and family are Yankees fans, and they’re not arrogant about it and they never rub my face in their success… some days that approach can be equally infuriating because I think they’re actually taking pity on me. But, that’s the thing, under no circumstance will a Phillies fan ever take pity on the Mets… and nor should they. The Phillies fan should always rub their success in my face, because I would do the same to them.

In short, the Phillies anger me every day, where as I only think of the Yankees during a few days in June and the occasional October.

So, for me, I can handle knowing my respectful Yankee friends and family are happy, because it means Phillies fans will be sad and disappointed, and their failure makes me happy. So, again, it’s not that I am rooting for the Yankees, it’s that I’m rooting for the Phillies to fail.